The recent increase in in-vehicle devices built into vehicles has resulted in a corresponding increase in the scale of in-vehicle networks used to exchange information among the in-vehicle devices. Configurations are therefore used in which an in-vehicle network is divided into multiple networks and an in-vehicle relay device such as a gateway is used to relay the exchange of information among the in-vehicle networks. Some in-vehicle relay devices have appeared that include, for example, functions for updating programs for ECUs (electronic control units) connected to in-vehicle networks, in addition to simple relay functions.
Specifically, J P 2014-182571A discloses an in-vehicle relay device having a multi-protocol connection with an in-vehicle electronic control unit (ECU). This in-vehicle relay device includes flash ROM (read-only memory) as high-capacity memory. New and old programs received from an information center are stored in the flash ROM, and differential data between the new and old programs is searched for and transmitted to the ECU.
Meanwhile, different ECUs handle various functions pertaining to the control of in-vehicle devices. In particular, some airbag ECUs, which are related to safety systems, record some vehicle information into internal non-volatile memory when the vehicle has experienced a collision, in addition to controlling the airbags (see the airbag control unit of JP 2006-193017A and the airbag control unit of JP 2010-85234A). The car navigation device disclosed in JP 2007-72567A, meanwhile, periodically records travel data, position data, image data of the surroundings, and line-of-sight direction data of the driver in memory along with the time.
However, with the techniques disclosed in Patent Documents 2 to 4, there is a limit on the types of the vehicle information and data recorded into the memory. Furthermore, the vehicle information that is recorded according to the disclosures disclosed in Patent Documents 3 and 4, and the data that is recorded according to the disclosure disclosed in Patent Document 5, have a problem in that the information and data are unevenly distributed to specific ECUs and specific devices, and are therefore not suited to centralized management.
Having been achieved in light of the foregoing circumstances, an object of the present disclosure is to provide an in-vehicle relay device capable of collectively recording information or data produced while a vehicle is traveling.